Apax Partners is set to majorly cut back on its commercial property office space as it downsizes its business across the world.
Aiming to work under a smaller fund, the firm has already made 11 senior professionals redundant, meaning that staff numbers have been cut to 99. The news was originally announced by Dow Jones this morning (March 22nd), revealing that the private equity firm was going to cut its investment staff by ten per cent.
Even though a new office will be opened in Sao Paulo, offices in Italy and Spain will close, in order to give the firm an eight-form global network structure. Even though the Italian staff has been relocated to London, it is still unknown whether the same fate will occur for the Spanish office.
The London office, meanwhile, will be cutting its commercial space in the capital city, with two of its five floors at its offices on Jermyn Street being sub-let to other tenants. The building has been leased by the firm since May 2006, but many experts have argued that the global financial crisis has been responsible for the company’s shortcomings.
Apax Partners is aiming to operate under both lower funds and fees, forming a new strategy for the next few years. The corporation had announced its eighth buyout in Europe in 2011, but with low investor demand, the firm has failed to reach any of its targets.
Generally, the company has had mixed results in recent years, after failing to sell drug courier Marken, meaning that the company had lost €450 million, whilst a sale of clothing group Tommy Hilfiger in March 2010 for €2.2 billion gave the firm a return of four and a half times.